Breaking Faith
by rowen-redford
Summary: Amid the screams and shouts of battle, an encounter takes place which can leave only one protagonist alive. As the death eaters storm Hogwarts, Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape meet for the last time. Old memories return, and old promises are broken.


Breaking Faith  
  
They had seen each other far off, although both pretended to be oblivious to the other's presence. It was not as if there weren't ample distractions, after all. At one end of the great hall Lucius was killing; ostentatiously, almost languidly dispatching one enemy after another, his expression intent and at the same time almost exultant. His eyes, darkened to the colour of wet paving stones, were full of delicate enjoyment. Several hundred metres away, Snape was defending himself with a rapid but brutal grace, using another wand as well as his own to double the power of the curses he was firing around him in quick succession. Lucius had thought at one time that all the beauty that Severus lacked in his appearance had been channelled into the fluid way the man moved when he duelled; Snape didn't dance - but as he killed another of Lucius' allies, Lucius reflected that the way he fought was almost more graceful. He also noted coolly that Severus was hopelessly outnumbered and had no way of rejoining the other ranks of the Order, cut off as he was by a tight-packed knot of death eaters. Lucius finished off his current adversary with slightly less attention, and began to move as swiftly as possible through the crowd of battling wizards and witches towards his former - friend. Yes, they had been friends once, until Severus' betrayal. Lucius was not accustomed to being betrayed. And if it had not been utterly alien to his collected demeanour, Lucius would have snarled with a sudden rage.  
But he was calm enough as he moved through the frenzied crowd, attacking and dodging as he went. Caution, which overruled even his natural vanity, forced him to give Albus Dumbledore (in full-fight, and backed by a stony-faced handful of Order members) a wide berth. By the time they were close enough to look at each other face to face, Lucius saw that Snape had collapsed. One of his legs was stretched out at an odd angle, and he was leaning feebly against the pale stone wall, his face as white and blank as a clock face. His wand, Lucius noted swiftly, lay in pieces beside him. How convenient. He saw Snape look up at him, and noted the lack of surprise in his eyes when he saw who it was. Lucius said nothing as he pointed his wand at Severus. He had realised long ago that there was no etiquette for such a situation; "I'm going to kill you now" was simply banal, whilst gloating simply made one look insecure. And Lucius Malfoy had many faults, but insecurity had never been one of them.  
"Can't.move," Snape gasped out, seeing Lucius standing over him. The fighting wizards around him seemed suddenly to pale into the background. It had always been like this, he thought suddenly. Lucius standing over him, power and ruthlessness and perfect beauty personified. And he had always crouched before him, weaker, glad to be noticed at all. Even now there was a kind of sick gratitude in the thought that Lucius had noticed him, had singled him out for suffering. "So I perceive." "Do you - remember?" Snape said softly, and Lucius stared at him. Behind them the crowds were thinning, although battling figures still pressed against them oblivious. "Remember, when we last met?"  
Lucius smiled briefly. "You told me that if we met like this, in memory of our friendship you would kill me straight out instead of allowing me to be imprisoned."  
"Or driven insane by torture." Indeed. Ever since Lucius had watched Severus trying to confront a boggart in his second year, only to see it turn into a lunatic double of his lank- haired protégé, he had known what Severus feared above all. He could endure death, but the prospect of insanity frightened him beyond words. Cogito ergo sum. If Severus could no longer think, he would no longer exist. Only his body would live on, in wretched dribbling humiliation. Severus winced from it then, as he did now, staring entreatingly up at Lucius.  
"And you.promised me the same thing," he reminded Lucius.  
"Really." Snape was breathing heavily, Lucius noted dispassionately; perhaps one of his lungs had been punctured? Or had he been hit by another kind of curse? His face was contorted as if the effort of breathing pained him. It would be a shame if Severus succumbed before being taken back to Voldemort, Lucius mused. It would cheat them all out of a good deal of amusement. Intelligent victims were the best sort, after all: what was intelligence really, but the ability to understand? And what could be more amusing than a prisoner who thoroughly understood the hopelessness of his situation, understood the pain, and ingenious suffering and humiliation which he was bound to suffer, understood and was all the more terrified because of it? After he had stunned Snape he would have to put a few healing spells on him to make sure he remained alive until it was convenient for him to be otherwise.  
"I promised I would kill you swiftly?" Lucius said softly, ducking a stray stunning spell which shot suddenly over his head. Snape nodded - apparently speaking was rapidly becoming difficult. His eyes stared past Lucius at the battle going on behind them, the noise of which seemed inexplicably to dim; it was if the pair had suddenly been enclosed in a private room.  
"Please," Severus choked out after a struggle, and Lucius savoured the word for a moment. He was a man who enjoyed many sensual pleasures: good wine, expensive clothes, steaming hot baths, the sheen of his wife's hair in candlelight. but they all paled into insignificance before the sight of Severus Snape lying helplessly at his feet, desperately begging for clemency. His eyes were so dark, the older man mused, the fear reflected in them was so genuine. Such a pity that his entreaty would be in vain. He smiled, slowly.  
"I do apologise, Severus, but I'm afraid I rather lied to you on that point."  
"You -" the other man gasped. He seemed too dazed to say any more.  
"Don't worry, Severus, I promise you you'll be alive for a good while yet. In fact, I will make it my business that you do."  
"But -" One of Severus' hands was twitching convulsively, and there was blood dribbling down his face. Lucius suppressed a fastidious desire to wipe it off.  
"I'd counsel you to be less trusting, in the future," Severus saw - rather than heard - Lucius say. His face was alight with cold mirth, and he had never looked so perfect, Snape thought suddenly, or so lethal. He sighed, closed his eyes for an instant to gather his strength. Or what was left of it. So it ends like this, he thought, remembering two boys practising curses in a deserted part of the school grounds, their laughter shrill on the cold morning air as a young orange sun rose above them. But he was - thank God and alas - no longer eleven years old. And it was the time of breaking faith. He felt Lucius' wand press against his forehead, and observed vaguely that the hand holding the wand was shaking uncontrollably. He did not want to think about what that might mean. Severus opened his eyes again.  
"You'd do well to take your own advice, Lucius." And Lucius, startled at his abrupt lucidity of tone, glanced sharply at Severus just as a jet of green light hit him squarely in the chest. Severus saw Lucius' eyes widen with shock, and a rapid, furious, amused realisation flash through them: Ah - two wands. Clever little Severus. And then he crumpled and fell, and Severus was suddenly pressed underneath a familiar body which this time was nothing more than clay. He was finally gone; the man who had dominated him so thoroughly since he was eleven years old had disappeared, and he was free. But, Severus wondered, full of exultant grief, what happens now? 


End file.
